The Elusive Science of Addiction
Many addicts report that taking drugs provides a feeling like being hugged, a feeling they are unlikely to find elsewhere. It is time that we acknowledge that, for many patients, social exclusion, marginalization, poverty, and loneliness are part of the addictive process.
LINKÖPING, SWEDEN – I still remember a conversation I had more than 25 years ago, when I was a young physician, just starting in my work with patients struggling with drugs and alcohol. “You know, doc,” a patient told me. “Getting drunk or taking heroin feels like being hugged by mom.”